NEWS: Meteorite reported hitting near Olympia Wash is a hoax

An AP report about a metorite landing in Washington state has since been retracted when it was revealed that it was a hoax. A man identifying himself as a University of Washington astronomy professor named Bradley Hammermaster contacted news sources about the supposed strike. UWA later revealed that no one by that name is employed at the school.
A meteor did flash over the Pacific Northwest that night, but it did not crash into the earth as initially reported by the AP.



It seems for some reason we are getting hoaxes about asteroids and meteors lately. Perhaps the release of FOX's new movie The Day After Tomorrow has awaken a new barrage of hoaxters this year.

Related News
ATSNN: Meteor over Washington!!



[Edited on 5-6-2004 by Banshee]

It is related to the early story of people hearing sharp booms over Washington. I guess people better watch out for more hoaxters, the trend this year seems to be asteroids. My advice is don't over react when some of these reports/hoaxes come up.

[Edited on 3-6-2004 by Muaddib]

Please note that the meteor itself wasn't a hoax, it was a caller who said that he had seen it and where it had landed that was the hoax. I append herewith a news sites for easy perusal. By the way I am new here, so if I don't do this right forgive me.

www.signonsandiego.com...

www.miami.com...

www.kirotv.com...

I have also received information about two crop circles that appeared in Asse in Belgium on 22 May 2004. What this has to do with the meteor? Nothing - just of interest.


Would love to hear from people in the Washington state area. The earthquake in Tahoe was about 45 minutes prior to the meteor.

"The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows. "

Here we go again..................

Another hoax masks the real and interesting truth behind it.....
Within a couple of weeks it will only be remembered as a hoax and all references to the actual events will be lost.

Another member recently posted abouth this technique of masking actual events with similar, fake ones, so that the true events are remembered as
fake.

In this case there probably isn't any 'technique' involved and there probably is no intention to mask the actual events, but that will probably be the result.



[Edited on 3-6-2004 by AgentSmith]

Agentsmith, I am compelled to believe that just as there are people who try to make all crop circles hoaxes, the same seems to be happening here. Is it government disinfo? I believe it has more to do with people trying to have a laugh at the expense of others. Is just like...what's his name Randy? the man who says he can debunk everything that has to do with the paranormal and has 1 million dollars for anyone that can prove him other wise. The problem is that he never concedes to the possibility, and no matter what you show him he does not believe.

One incident alone of a meteor entering and disintegrating in the atmosphere is not a rare occurrence, and more so since we are about to have some meteor showers. But if we start seeing "reliable" reports of "meteorites" falling to the ground, then we would have something worthy to investigate and I would be willing to say its possible something bigger might be coming soon.

Still concerning the AB post on the three asteroids coming, I say is a hoax, well its my opinion.


[Edited on 3-6-2004 by Muaddib]

Very true, it seems to always be almost impossible to either prove or disprove something.

I just get irritated when something that is proven is lost in a mess of, errr..., rubbish!

What is probably even more irritating than that though, is when you cannot sift out the truth from the lies.

The belloid did indeed fly through the Wahington area this morning at 2:40am. The said it was the size of a computer monitor or a small piece of luggage. It was ruled out to be a piece of falling space chuck and in fact was a small metorite. The high speed sonic booms were heard over Pugent Sound as a direct result of the metorites flight over the area.

It was alrady covered on CNN this morning
www.cnn.com...

[Edited on 3-6-2004 by robertfenix]

Well, CNN also has an article about it on their website:
CNN Link

Edit: Dangit Roberfenix, you beat me to it. :-D

[Edited on 6-3-2004 by EmbryonicEssence]

Not that I would have any inside infomation pertaining to this event but I am under the impression this story is real and it could be that one of the reasons it is being discredited is because isnt "EROS" surpose to be here sometime soon?

Just a thought.

Falcon

robertfenix, I know enough about astronomy to tell you that what was seen in Washington was a meteor, not a meteorite. Meteors desintegrate in the upper atmosphere, meteorites are meteors that survive entry and crash on Earth.

I AM STAYING WITH FAMILY HERE ON WHIDBEY ISLAND. NO ONE HERE INCLUDING MYSELF HEARD ANYTHING? BUT I JUST SPOKE WITH ANOTHER PERSON FROM THE WEST SEATTLE AREA WHO HEARD IT AND THOUGHT THEY WERE BEING BOMBED?

Space.com has it covered

space.com...

The landing may be a hoax but the meteor was real. It zoomed past the sky and made a big bang.

i was awake when it happen the first thing i heard was like machine gun fire then a bright flash i live between darrington and granite falls about 1000 feet above sea level now when this happen why when i was listening to my scanner the airforce?( i think) scambled fighter jets at 2am the last thing i heard before the event one pilot said object confirmed then nothing but scambled noise then later the noise and flash i wonder if it was something other then a meteorite like maybe a ufo or ??? i think it is a cover up of what it really was just keep watching the sky it will amaze you what u see the truth is NOW!! any whooo just my 2 cents

Would it have shown up on a seismograph if it didn't hit?

The Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network

I wonder how much of this is Southpark inspired.

Didn't Cartman just play this meteor hoax on Butters?

Hmm?

Okay I just read the report from the Seattle paper and watched the three videos they posted on the event. And I can say that someone is not telling the truth.

First off the amount of light emitted and bounced off the ground rules out that this thing was high up. MAX 5,000 feet if not less.

Second after watching the light reflections and the limited scope of illumination on the surroundings leads me to believe that it was traveling straight and fast, just over 2.5 seconds of illumination even at a distance from the video clip at ground level with the fence on the right side leaving you with an almost head on exposure to the flight path. Which again rules out the object being high up as the observation time would be much longer, as well as the illuminessence a lot less.

Third the view from the (on top a building) looking down into a parking lot you can see the direction of the shadwos being cast as the object travels overhead and slightly to the left off the video image. IF the object was higher in the air, the light defussion would be greater and their would be longer shadows being cast. Again adding data to the fact that this thing passed over low and fast.

Forth it should be classed as a meteorite seeing as something that low and with the ability to cast that much light must have had some mass that made it to the surface, if it was just a meteor I doubt it would have been able to throw off as much light

Oh and here is a quote from the paper

Ralph Gaume, head of astronometry at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., said he knew of no likely source from outer space, such as a passing comet or meteor cluster or shower, but added that meteors commonly appear at random.

Astronometry is the branch of astronomy that measures the size and location of celestial objects.

Anyone else find this odd ?? That the Astronometry branch says it had no clue about this object, and that in fact things can appear at "random" without their knowledge ????? WHAT THE HECK

That gives me a lot of confidence then in their ability as a early warning system.

What if this thing was 10 times the size? Would they have seen it then ????


[Edited on 3-6-2004 by robertfenix]

Link to the videos please?

Originally posted by Omega Pickle
Link to the videos please?

Seattle Post

Posted by AgentSmith

Wow that thing goes by in about a half a sec.